Technical Field
The present specification relates to an idling stop control device which can save fuel and reduce an amount of an exhaust gas by automatically temporarily stopping an operation of an internal combustion engine.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a vehicle equipped with an idling stop control device that executes an idling stop control. In general, the idling stop control device automatically stops an operation of an internal combustion engine when the idling stop control device detects a stop of a vehicle on the basis of a speed of the vehicle (i.e., a vehicle speed) or an operation of a brake pedal or the like. On the other hand, the idling stop control device restarts the operation of the engine when the idling stop control device detects a start of a movement of the vehicle on the basis of a release of the brake pedal or the like. In addition, there is known an idling stop control that automatically stops the operation of the engine while the vehicle stops as well as while the vehicle travels. For example, according to this idling stop control, when the brake pedal is depressed or operated and thus, the vehicle decelerates, the operation of the engine is automatically stopped.
When the operation of the engine has been automatically stopped by an execution of the idling stop control, a generation of an electric power by an alternator stops and thus, an electric power is supplied only from a battery to an in-vehicle electric loads. When a condition for permitting the execution of the idling stop control is not satisfied, for example, due to a release of the brake pedal, a starter is supplied with an electric power from the battery to restart the operation of the engine.
For example, in a device proposed in JP 2010-91496 A, in order to assuredly restart the operation of the engine, as the condition for permitting the execution of the idling stop control is set a condition that an amount of an electric power remaining in the battery is equal to or larger than a reference amount.
One of the known in-vehicle electric loads is an electric actuator that changes a motion state of the vehicle during the travelling of the vehicle. When the operation of the engine has been automatically stopped by the execution of the idling stop control during the travelling of the vehicle, the electric actuator is supplied with an electric power from the battery. For example, one of such electric actuators is an electric active stabilizer. The electric active stabilizer drives an electric motor to change a torsional stiffness of a stabilizer bar such that a target roll angle can be achieved. The electric active stabilizer temporarily operates, for example, when the vehicle turns, however, an amount of an electric power consumed by the activation of the electric active stabilizer is large.
Thus, when the electric active stabilizer starts to activate while the operation of the engine has been stopped by the execution of the idling stop control, the amount of the electric power remaining in the battery may decrease to below the reference amount during the activation of the electric active stabilizer. An idling stop control device proposed in JP 2010-91496 A activates a starter to restart the operation of the engine when the device detects that the amount of the electric power remaining in the battery decreases to below the reference amount. At this time, the activation of the starter causes an amount of an electric power supplied to the electric active stabilizer to change and thus, causes the rolling motion state of the vehicle to undesirably change. Therefore, the vehicle driver may be subject to a discomfort.
Such a problem raises in the electric active stabilizer as well as in the other electric actuators that change the motion state of the vehicle. In other words, an amount of an electric power consumed by the activation of the electric actuator that changes the motion state of the vehicle is generally large and thus, the starter may activate at a relatively high frequency under the condition described above during the execution of the idling stop control. As a result, the motion state of the vehicle considerably changes and thus, the vehicle driver may be subject to a discomfort